I would love to be posting that I made another kite, or that I have made significant progress on the challenge, but the last part of this week is all about Scouts.
There are unit meetings 2 nights in a row, then I’m off for the weekend with my 2 younger sons to a Scout event where my middle son will be the acting Senior Patrol Leader. My relationship with him has never been what I would like for it to be. I’m afraid that his tagging along to the activities that formed the awesome person that his big brother is may have dimmed his self esteem, and we have been at lager-heads regarding motivation since he was able to learn to do (I’m a huge fan of teaching kids to do it for themselves early and often).
Fortunately he is teaching himself that external validation works to motivate him, so a position of responsibility helps to keep him going. Unfortunately the Adult Leadership for his unit and especially for this outing, is not keen to let youth lead or mentor that leadership. We all know that it is easier to yell at room full of kids, than to help someone learn how to lead, but I would prefer that the Scouts grow as people and have fun doing it.
So while I’m not making the progress that I want, and I’m feeling some trepidation about my plans for the next couple days, my energy level is through the roof. This morning, after staying up past my bedtime, on homework and packing for the outing, my eyes popped open after about 5 hours sleep. Knowing that if I tried to stay in bed until it was reasonable to be moving, I would only lie there spinning the things on my to do list through my mind, I hopped up and started into them. While listening to a podcast from the beginning of the year, I found myself dancing and steadily getting through my list.
This morning is just part of a trend, too. The last couple days, I have felt like there is so much on my plate (a month ago I had 50 things on my to do list, the list has only gotten longer), but my spirits have been soaring to the point where I am contemplating ways to play the podcast in the background at home for the benefit of my kids, and dropping hints to my wife that listening to the podcast is really changing my perspective, not just about my side-hustle, but also about the “day-job”.
I don’t speak much of my wife here, she is a very private person, and I have no interest is exercising any negativity from our imperfect relationship on this audience, but in my heart of hearts I hope that she can HEAR some part of Cathy’s message and let it help her find purpose.
While I’m sharing the love over the Don’t (just) Keep Your Day Job community, I realized that there is a new bright star in my Scouting community as well. Our Pack has some really promising energy right now. While nothing is perfect, with the addition of girls to our unit’s roster and the adults that sometimes register with them, we have some delicious excitement. A couple of our new Cubs received their field uniforms at the meeting last night, and I had the pleasure of giving them woggles and getting to know their mother (who is taking the training for adult leadership) better.
Also, an interaction with another Adult Leader over concerns with the direction the Troop is heading warmed my heart, in that someone who has their hands full is looking ahead, watching for potholes and pitfalls, and looking for tools to send on to smooth the way and make the unit stronger, before the youth in her care move on to a program that is already different enough. I have butted my head against walls for years now, over Adult Leaders that say they are there for the boys, but don’t seem to be able to mentor a Scout toward being a leader. I hold out hope that we may find Adults that understand that telling youth to grow up is not as effective as guiding youth to become adults.
I think that’s enough, for now.
Smooth Winds